Customers Complaints

The hardest part of my job...having customers who aren't happy. Try as I might, I've accepted that no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, no matter what I say...I will have unhappy customers. Customers that are just unhappy people to begin with and even if the job is nearly perfect...they will find a reason to be unhappy. So what can I do?

First, I accept responsibility for what went wrong...right or wrong...it's my fault and it has to be fixed. Somewhere between step 1 (introducing myself) and step 10 (install finished) I missed something. It really doesn't matter what went wrong or even why it went wrong..what matters is how do I fix it? Sometimes it's as easy as saying "I'm sorry and it won't happen again" Sometimes it's as elaborate as "I'll replace the whole floor on my dime". Somewhere between those two solutions lies 100 other solutions that will create a happy customer.

However, what can I do about the customers who either lie about their situation because they only care about getting more money back or just don't bother to give you an opportunity to fix the problem? Years ago..the only ones who heard a complaint were most likely the store and anyone who would listen to the unhappy customer (friends and family). While this negative situation can hurt business a bit, they only have access to but so many people. However, today we have the world wide web and a single complaint can be broadcasted to many..MANY! And a single complaint posted online can really hurt business. So where years ago, one unhappy customer, who was impossible to make happy you could maybe brush off and let it go. Today...what do you do? a brush off could be the kiss of death....

suggestions....?????

Lady Gaga and Lindsey Lohan....

Driving home yesterday, listening to the radio...which is a rare thing in my car, usually it's a kid going on and on about something I'm suppose to be interested in....a report about Lady Gaga admitting to do drugs in some magazine was the BIG news. The radio personality then went on to drag Lindsey Lohan into the discussion and made some feeble attempt at saying young girls have no good role models and how can we (as parents) expect to raise "good" girls if the likes of Lady Gaga and Lindsey are all over the media? She put out all kinds of facts...how much time little girls spend watching TV, reading magazines, talking about "famous people" w/ friends and family. All I could think was...why are young girls even looking to Lady Gaga and Lindsey Lohan as role models? Since when did famous people become role models?

Madonna was HOT, uber cool -- when I was in high school. With her pointed bras, dark makeup, grinding up on men, killer songs and great concerts. However, she wasn't my role model! She was someone who lived in a world I would never enter. She was Madonna, musically talented and famous. I was Tara Eklund, high school student...still figuring out life. I don't believe even for a second did I think I wanted to become Madonna, be like Madonna or live Madonna's life. If Madonna did drugs...I certainly wasn't going to run out and do drugs. If Madonna slept around I certainly wasn't going to sleep around. Just because Madonna did it, Tara wasn't going to!

I find it hard to believe a young girl is going to take up cocaine simply because Lady Gaga does. Or how about marijuana? Paris Hilton smokes that...does that mean my 18 year old daughter will? Lindsey Lohan...rehab repeater...where does these leave young ladies? I highly doubt Cocaine, Heroine or even marijuana usage will increase because some very famous idiots do them. The usage will increase because lazy parents think they have a simple excuse for not staying on top of their kids. Certainly it"s easier to say..."Little Sally is in rehab for the forth time for addiction to Cocaine because Lady Gaga made it seem so easy and fun"...then it is to say "I should have been more involved with my kids, I should have been THE role model for Little Sally, I should have turned off the radio when driving and listen to Little Sally and NOT Lady Gaga". If more parents would stop looking for "things" to blame with what is going wrong with our youth, more youth would start turning out better!